SYRACUSE, NY -- A tobacco farmer needed a way in May 2006 to get rid of thousands of smelly dollars, according to federal prosecutors.

The farmer, William D. Humphries, had been paid for his product in large amounts of cash by a cigarette maker on the Akwesasne Mohawk Indian Reservation in Northern New York, prosecutors said.

The cash always had a strong scent of marijuana because the cigarette makers were also heavily into selling pot, the prosecutors said in court papers.

Three months earlier, the smell had alerted drug-sniffing dogs when police pulled Humphries over, and they seized his $88,000 in cash.

The next time he was paid by the owners of MHP Tobacco, Humphries employed a time-consuming process to exchange the stinky bills for clean bills, prosecutors say.

He put the cash, one bill at a time, over and over, into slot machines at the Mohawk Bingo Palace on the reservation and walked out with spick-and-span cash when he cleaned out his account, prosecutors say.

It's a case of literal money-laundering, according to an indictment accusing Humphries of trying to conceal the proceeds of marijuana-trafficking over three years.

His lawyer scoffs at the prosecution's theory.

"They're trying to say he's somehow taking this drug money on a daily basis and he's putting it through these machines," said Humphpries' lawyer, Douglas Dollinger said. "It's a farce."

Humphries' explanation for the record of his repeated trips to the slots: He'd figured out a system and was winning big, Dollinger said.

Humphries, 67, of Lake City, S.C., is scheduled to go on trial today in U.S. District Court in Syracuse on charges of money-laundering, conspiring to commit wire fraud to bypass Canada taxes and conspiring to make tobacco products without a license.

He would face up to 30 years in prison if he's convicted.

The indictment lists 178 instances between May 2006 and March 2009 when Humphries exchanged the marijuana-smelling cash for clean cash by running the money through slot machines.

The total amount of exchanged cash was $1.9 million, for an average of $10,700 every time he made the switch, according to the indictment.

Humphries isn't accused of being involved with the marijuana-traffickers, Pat Johnson and Hank Cook, who are expected to testify against him. He's accused of laundering money he knew was the proceeds of crimes.

Johnson and Cook were the owners of MHP, which stood for Mohawks Have Pride. The marijuana-smelling cash they paid him was for his tobacco.

As part of his cooperation with federal investigators, Johnson wore a hidden microphone in face-to-face conversations with Humphries and secretly recorded phone calls with him.

In one phone conversation, Johnson reminded Humphries that he had to pay in "dope money," court papers said. Humphries responded by saying that he could "get rid of it," papers said.

In the phone call, Humphries acknowledged the money made his hands burn because "it stunk so," the papers said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Carl Eurenius refused to comment.

Humphries, who's not in jail, suffered a brain injury in a serious traffic accident in 2010, Dollinger said. The injury has wiped out most of his memory of the facts of the case, the lawyer said.

Humphries is accused of conspiring with Johnson and Cook to sell the cigarettes on the black market in Canada, bypassing that country's taxes. He's also accused of manufacturing the cigarettes without the required licenses.

Dollinger disputes those charges. He said Humphries did have a license from the Mohawk Nation, which is a sovereign entity.

Prosecutors contend that a tribal permit was obtained through a third party recruited by Johnson and Cook, who were known marijuana traffickers.

After Humphries started feeding large amounts of money into the slots almost daily and "cash out repeatedly and in rapid succession," the bingo hall took notice, prosecutors said in court papers. The parlor designated him a regular and recorded all his activities, the papers said.

Officials at the bingo hall could not be reached for comment.

The slot machine records do not prove Humphries was laundering money, Dollinger said. They're a result of a guy who figured out a way to win big on the slots, the lawyer said. That required lots of playing time.

Humphries won $240,000 over 20 months on slot machines at the bingo hall, Dollinger said. It's common for farmers to deal almost strictly in cash and not by check, he said.

"He's got a system and it works," Dollinger said. "He's making $7,200 a month on slots. Other than that, he's just a farmer going about his business."

A table with the 208 counts detailing when the marijuana-smelling cash was allegedly exchanged for clean cash (the first three counts are interstate travel in aid of racketeering, wire fraud conspiracy to defraud Canada of tax revenue, and conspiracy to manufacture tobacco products without a license). On the eve of trial, prosecutors voluntarily dismissed 30 of the counts, saying that proceeding on those counts "was not in the best interest of the United States," reducing the total laundered amount to $1.9 million: